Steps needed to ensure Texas Baptist freedom, Campbell says

July 1, 2002

Steps needed to ensure Texas Baptist freedom, Campbell says
___By Marv Knox
___Editor
___FORT WORTH--Loyal Texas Baptists must "take a few steps" to ensure the freedom of the Baptist General Convention of Texas, BGCT President Bob Campbell told several hundred participants in a breakfast meeting sponsored by Texas Baptists Committed.
___Texas Baptists Committed is a political organization created more than a decade ago to support the BGCT's institutions, programs and leadership. It has played a primary role in thwarting within the BGCT the kind of fundamentalist movement that succeeded in gaining control of the Southern Baptist Convention during the past two decades.
___The Texas Baptists Committed breakfast took place during the annual general assembly of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, July 27-29 in Fort Worth. The Fellowship is a missions/church resources organization that split from the SBC in 1991.
___Although often linked in Texas, Texas Baptists Committed and the Fellowship are not one and the same. While almost all Fellowship supporters in Texas are affiliated with Texas Baptists Committed, a large number of TBC members have kept their distance from the Fellowship, a nationwide organization.
___Texas Baptists must press on to ensure the freedom of the BGCT, Campbell, pastor of Westbury Baptist Church in Houston, told the breakfast crowd.
___"You may think, 'The state of Texas is well in hand, and I don’t have to go to the annual conventions anymore,'" he said. "That's far from true."
___He urged clergy and laity alike to participate in this year's BGCT annual session, to be held Nov. 11-12 in Waco.
___In contrast to the SBC, the BGCT remains free and open to all Texas Baptists, he insisted. As an illustration, he said the BGCT still is a place where Baptists are "free to disagree with the leadership and still be in good standing."
___In addition to faithfully attending the BGCT annual sessions, Campbell urged Texas Baptists to take three other important steps to secure the future.
___First, he urged them to send their children to the eight universities affiliated with the BGCT or to encourage the young people to participate in the Baptist Student Ministries programs on the other university campuses statewide.
___"We must win this next generation," Campbell stressed. He conceded that students will get quality educations on many campuses, but he affirmed the uniquely Christian and distinctively Baptist education they will receive at the BGCT schools. He also championed the education and ministry opportunities students statewide find available through Baptist Student Ministries.
___The rising generation must be well educated in Christian principles and Baptist distinctives so churches and the BGCT will remain strong in the decades ahead, Campbell said.
___"We've had our shot," he told the crowd, comprised primarily of middle-aged and senior adults. "We must bring along the next generation of students."
___Second, he called on churches to send their ministerial students to Baylor University's Truett Theological Seminary, Hardin-Simmons University's Logsdon School of Theology or "a seminary of like faith and order."
___He urged Texas Baptists to stay away from the "renegade seminaries" operated by the SBC.
___A primary problem with the SBC's seminaries is they indoctrinate students with the 2000 Baptist Faith & Message statement, he said.
___That document was drafted by the SBC in 2000, replacing a more inclusive version of the faith statement that was approved by the SBC in 1963. Many Texas Baptists have faulted the new faith statement for several reasons. They cite its self-definition as an "instrument of doctrinal accountability," which gives it the appearance of a creed. They also contend it sets Scripture over Jesus, denigrates the historic Baptist doctrine of the priesthood of the believer, demeans women and limits the authority of individual Baptist congregations.
___Ministers who attend SBC seminaries "will come back and run your church," Campbell warned, claiming an inclination toward ministerial authority.
___Third, he exhorted Texas Baptist churches to "start using Baptist literature and not the non-Baptist literature produced by LifeWay" Christian Resources, the SBC's publishing house.
___The problem with LifeWay literature is its loyalty to the 2000 Baptist Faith & Message, he said. "Take a hard look at literature" used in church Bible study classes, he added. "It will creep in on you subtly."
___The BGCT needs courageous and faithful church leadership in order to remain strong, Campbell noted.
___"Pastors, take a vocal, visible stand," he said. "It will cost you. … You must be a prophet."
___The BGCT's journey toward freedom is like the Children of Israel's march to the Promised Land reported in the Old Testament, Campbell said, conceding the journey is long and tiring but promising the final destination is worth the sacrifice.
___"Don't give up," he pleaded. "We are almost home. We've got to clear the land."
___In greetings to a dinner meeting of the Mainstream Baptist Network the night before, Campbell told the gathering of Baptists from across the nation that the BGCT does not have all problems solved.
___"Many of you look at Texas and say, 'I wish I were in a state where we have the same kind of control.' That is a false view of Texas. There is still a struggle going on," he reported.
___Campbell urged moderate Baptists who live in states without a strong moderate presence to persevere and not "grow weary in well-doing."
___"If you remain in the minority until Jesus comes, stand strong in the faith."

___Managing Editor Mark Wingfield contributed to this story

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